UNCW men's basketball preview - Building a better team through pingpong

Sunday

Nov 4, 2012 at 10:30 AM

A sense of family they hope will sustain them when adversity crashes down during the upcoming season

By Brian MullBrian.Mull@StarNewsOnline.com

Pingpong brought them together.A table became the centerpiece of the UNCW men's basketball locker room over the summer. Now, whenever players, managers – even coaches – have free time they can be found there, paddles in hand, firing plastic balls across the net.The Seahawks' pre-practice conversation often centers on the outcome of the latest match. Student manager Bryan Harward, aka Lightning, won the recently completed singles tournament. Teams and brackets for a doubles tournament will be revealed soon.This isn't about who can impart the most topspin on a serve or deliver the hardest smash, though. No one is training for Olympic gold.Rather, this is about camaraderie. Boys being boys by shooting verbal needles, joking, competing and, through this process, forming a brotherhood, a sense of family they hope will sustain them when adversity crashes down during the upcoming season.The sounds of ‘chitter-chatter'UNCW guard Freddie Jackson sees fewer cliques in the locker room, compared to a year ago when he was one of eight freshmen. He feels he can hang out with any of his 15 teammates, and others feel the same.“The pingpong table has that effect on the team,” said Jackson, whose 6-foot-9 wingspan is an asset on the table and the court. “Everybody is in the locker room during that spare time when we have breaks. Last year people would go home ... When you talk a little smack in competition, it kind of makes you feel comfortable with the other person and know the other person better, knowing what you can say. That kind of brings everybody together.”High hopes for a young nucleus surrounded the UNCW program entering the 2011-12 season. An influx of newcomers was supposed to signal a revival and, after an 0-5 start, the Seahawks fought back to a respectable 8-10 and 4-4 in the CAA on Jan. 21. From there, they splintered, fractured and eventually crashed, winning just twice in the final 13 games for the program's fourth 20-loss season in the past six.Three of the freshmen – Luke Hager, Craig Ponder and Dylan Sherwood – redshirted to either build their bodies or recover from injury. Nate Anderson, a 6-foot-10 forward, averaged only 5.8 minutes per game. But the other four – Freddie Jackson, K.K. Simmons, Adam Smith and Cedrick Williams – were regulars in the rotation. Smith started 29 games, Williams 25. After the season, Simmons and Smith opted to transfer out of the program. Homegrown New Hanover product Jackson and Williams, from Murfreesboro, Tenn., elected to stay.Losing last season hurt them too. Both players felt responsible and neither had played on a team that lost twice as many games as it won. Just the year before, each led his high school team to the state semifinals. Those squads won 57 games, combined.“It's two different worlds,” Williams said this week. “When you're winning everybody loves you. When you're losing, people look at you different, question you, want to know how things are going, how many games are we going to win this year, things like that. “It sort of gets under your skin, because you know in the locker room the guys are working as hard as they can to win.”Jackson hears the “chitter chatter” around town and campus as well. UNCW coach Buzz Peterson is urging his players to absorb those comments. Use them as fuel, along with the low outside expectations (the Seahawks were picked last in the CAA preseason poll) and the postseason ban handed down for low Academic Progress Rate scores by previous teams.Jackson has a young son in Wilmington and never considered leaving UNCW.“I wanted to stay here with this group of guys because I believe that we can get it done,” Jackson said. “We can win. Also, just because something's not working out doesn't mean it's not going to work out in the near future. You just don't jump ship and leave unless you have a legit reason you want to leave. There was no reason for me to leave.”The Seahawks never discovered an identity last year, Williams said, and didn't understand the attention to detail necessary to win tight games in college and specifically the CAA. A missed box out, a blown free throw, a poor screen, an ill-advised pass that gives an opponent a layup – all were expensive for a team that, in the final six weeks of the season, lost five conference games by six points or fewer.Making a differencePeterson knows upperclassmen Keith Rendleman, Matt Wilson, Shane Reybold and Tanner Milson grasp the value of each possession, the level of intensity required minute by minute, game to game. It's a lesson the younger Seahawks learned through each narrow, disappointing defeat. They say it made them stronger.“It brought us together, going through battle, just the lows in life,” Williams said. “Last year was definitely a low. Now, we all just want to win. It doesn't matter who is hot that night, who is down, we're going to pick them up. Top to bottom we just want to win. That's the only thing we care for right now.”Peterson has enjoyed coaching this team through summer workouts and the preseason. Then again, every player is happy in early November, before playing rotations are set and a team's record is unblemished. Past UNCW teams have been right here, saying the same things about family and true friendship. Sharing the credit is important. So is being accountable, and sharing the blame.Peterson feels this team's maturity makes it better equipped to handle the adversity, certain to come. He cites transfers Tyree Graham and Chris Dixon – 21- or 22-year-olds who have experienced life and fought through to have one last chance to play college basketball.Jackson credits all the veterans for assuming a stronger leadership role. When Peterson challenged his players near the end of a recent practice, Rendleman and Williams huddled their teammates – and their teammates listened.“It's more of a non-selfish team this year,” Jackson said. “Again, that comes with everybody feeling comfortable with each other. We've been working hard all through the summer and coming into the season. We have a bunch of unselfish guys.”